Cullen Returning With New League

Volusia sports

Former Baseball Executive Blake Cullen Is Coming Back To Daytona Beach With The Eastern Indoor Soccer League.

August 18, 1996|By Javier Solano of The Sentinel Staff

Nine years have passed since the Chicago White Sox stranded Blake Cullen in Daytona Beach, pulling their Florida State League franchise out of what was then called City Island Park and leaving the rookie owner with a stack of barely soiled uniforms and no one to fill them.

On the eve of his return to Daytona, with the new Eastern Indoor Soccer League set to begin play in June of 1997, Cullen hopes his timing has improved. When his Daytona Beach Admirals ceased operations after a one-year run in 1987, it wasn't the first time Cullen had been stranded.

He was also passed over for the Chicago Cubs general manager job in 1975 and fired by incoming National League president Bart Giamatti in 1986, each after 11 years of administrative service.

The latter dismissal brought him to Daytona in pursuit of his dream - running his own baseball franchise. At the time, he wanted the Cubs. But their minor-league operations were in the Midwest, and it would be another seven years before they moved Class AA and A affiliates into Orlando and Daytona. Again, Cullen's timing was bad.

But it has been near perfect ever since. Cullen is one of the pioneers responsible for turning the East Coast Hockey League into minor-league sports' greatest success story of the '90s, buying the Hampton Roads (Va.) expansion franchise for $25,000 in 1989 and selling it in June for a reported $2.8 million.

He and a handful of ECHL veterans, including Tallahassee Civic Center director Ron Spencer and former Tallahassee Tiger Sharks general manager and current EISL president Walt Edwards, hope to turn the same trick with indoor soccer.

''Soccer on a hot summer night indoors has a lot of appeal,'' Cullen, 60, said. ''It'll be a real test. We're going to keep our prices as low as we can. We're going to need a couple thousand a night.''

The impetus for the league began with the need to fill summer dates at indoor venues in medium-sized markets. Cullen looked into Arena Football, the Continental Indoor Soccer League and Roller Hockey International. The first two were too expensive, and Cullen passed on the latter, deciding that he didn't want year-round hockey at the Norfolk Scope.

Eventually, he came to the same conclusion that Edwards and Spencer did. The time for soccer had arrived in the United States, but its college players still represented an untapped market, notwithstanding the birth of outdoor Major League Soccer and the consolidation of the United Systems of Independent Soccer Leagues.

Enter the EISL, which will open with at least eight teams in June. The confirmed franchises so far are Tallahassee, Daytona Beach, Lafayette, La. and Baton Rouge, La. Other possibilities include Jacksonville, Pensacola and Charleston, S.C. The regular season will consist of 20-25 games played mostly on the weekends and run from June to August with the playoffs in September.

Edwards is targeting an average draw of 3,500 per game in the various markets. Cullen doesn't think that's overly ambitious. He thinks he can meet that mark at the Daytona Beach Ocean Center.

''Just the enthusiasm people have for soccer, particularly in the Daytona Beach area, Ormond Beach, Port Orange - it's really a lovely place to watch games,'' Cullen said. ''Indoor soccer's exciting. It's a game you've got to come out to take a look at.''

League organizers have planned a series of national combines in the fall that will provide the EISL with a player pool and possibly its coaches. The majority of players will come from the U.S. colleges. Cullen has tentatively looked for player-coach candidates within the roster of MLS's D.C. United.

Both the EISL and Cullen expect to announce a formal press conferences within the next few weeks. Cullen already has an office in Daytona and a vice president, former Daytona Beach Breakers general manager Eileen Sheldon, who worked with Cullen during the 1987 baseball season with the Admirals. When the Southern Hockey League suspended operations earlier this summer - and the Daytona Beach Breakers along with it - Cullen had the opening he needed for his EISL franchise.

''Had the Southern League gone forward this year, we probably wouldn't have gone forward with the soccer,'' Cullen said. ''Once hockey didn't go forward, we decided to go ahead with the soccer and do it independently.''

The Daytona EISL team has no name yet, but Cullen said that it would not be called the Admirals, which remains the name of his former Hampton Roads ECHL team. For information, call the Daytona EISL office at (904) 255-KICK.

The new leagues hopes to use the same formula that produced the ECHL's boom in the '90s: make it affordable and stay regional. Start-up costs for a charter EISL franchise are $100,000, payable over three years. Players stand to make $350 per week plus living expenses. Season tickets for Daytona's 10-12 home games would be priced under $100, Cullen said.